Maureen Jessica is passionate about entrepreneurship, innovation, financial education, women empowerment and climate tech. She is also interested in investment on the African Continent, especially sub-sahara Africa where very few funding goes to female entrepreneurs.
Her rather atypical background includes a bachelor’s degree in international relations, a master's degree in sociology of development, and most recently a PhD in sociology.
She started her career in 2014 working on rural women’s access to loans and micro-credits. As a result of her leadership in communities, she was selected as for a leadershipr program in the US at Drexel University. Later one she began to provide training on topics related to entrepreneurship to Small and Medium Enterprises financing for women in the south of benin (dogbo and djakotomey villages).
From 2019 to 2022, she was appointed by the Minister of Digital as the Coordinator of the National Fund for Digital Entrepreneurs (FAEN).
Under her supervision, the fund has granted nearly 400,000 USD to Beninese entrepreneurs developing digital or green solutions with impact. During this time she launched her own platform of consulting and SAAVA (meaning it's going be alright in french) which is a training for female entrepreneurs to be investment ready and to be matched with investors. In 2022, she started working as program manager for a local startup accelerator and is now also working along her academic commitments, a fulltime venture builder in her ecosystem.